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Paul Yaffe's Custom Motorcycles Have Plenty of Style

Style is like beauty: Even if they don’t possess it, most people still recognize it when they see it. Paul Yaffe not only recognizes style, he knows how to create it. Yaffe is one of the country’s most talented builders, having crafted nearly 100 customs in his relatively short career. Many of those creations have been show winners, and the two customs seen here are not the first to appear in this magazine: Another of Yaffe’s bikes, called “Deco Deluxe,” was featured on the cover of our April-May, 1997 issue.

Yaffe works out of his self-named Paul Yaffe Originals, a small but well-equipped operation that serves as both a retail outlet and the final assembly point for his customs. The 34-year-old builder also owns a complete fabrication shop in nearby Scottsdale where all the cutting, milling and welding takes place, along with just about anything else involved in the making of his stylish masterpieces.

If you’ve never heard of Yaffe’s company, that’s probably because it has a brand-new name. Actually, the business formerly had two different names: The bike-customizing part of the operation was known as American Legend Motorcycle Company; the firm also marketed a line of Yaffe-designed billet Harley accessories under the Beyond Bolt-On label.

Yaffe launched the line a couple of years ago with a side-mount taillight/license-plate holder, and the collection has since expanded into more than 100 separate items. But after buying out his partner a few months ago, he re­named the entire operation Paul Yaffe Originals. “It’s the same location, the same people, the same products,” he says. “The only thing new is the name.”